Netherlands

The Dutch government yesterday ordered an investigation into persistent shortages of certain brands of baby formula, blamed on networks of traffickers who ship milk powder to China where it is sold at premium prices.

If you like spending time in the greenhouse and following the sun throughout the day, you might opt for the Hayhouse; or if you're more drawn to the idea of a cosy Scandinavian log cabin, maybe the Deckhouse is for you.

A former Hong Kong-based diplomat has been jailed for 12 years for selling hundreds of sensitive military documents to Russia intelligence - including Nato's activities in Afghanistan and Libya. Ex-Dutch foreign service employee Raymond Poeteray - who worked at the consulate in Hong Kong between 2004 and 2008 - "perturbed and undermined the interests of the Netherlands and its allies", the court in The Hague said in a statement yesterday.

Dutch organisers were scrambling yesterday to find a new song to mark the upcoming enthronement of the Netherlands' new king after a serenade written especially for the inauguration attracted a storm of criticism for its "imbecilic" lyrics.

The former Dutch foreign service employee, Raymond Poeteray, worked at the consulate in Hong Kong between 2004 and 2008. He faces charges of passing state secrets to Russian secret service SVR - the successor to the KGB - as well as bribery, laundering more than HK$870,000 and possession of a firearm.

The Dutch are increasingly uneasy about Prime Minister David Cameron coming to the Netherlands to make his speech on Britain’s future in Europe, with some critics saying he’d be better off staying at home.

Insurers estimate that the damage bill from rioting in a sleepy Dutch town after a Facebook party invitation went viral could top a €1 million (HK$10.1million).

After a night of violence when police officers were pelted with stones, bottles, tubs of flowers and even bicycles, local officials lined up to denounce those responsible and promise they would be brought to justice.

The Netherlands' "best known politician outside the country", thanks to his hard-line anti-Muslim stance, Wilders appealed to local voters on a populist platform taking aim at the "bureaucrats in Brussels".

A former Hong Kong-based diplomat accused of being part of a Russian spy ring was simply "gossiping" about colleagues and not passing secrets about them, his lawyer has told a court in the Netherlands.

You might know them as the Diaoyu or the Senkaku islands, but my people call them the Bezotteneijlanden, which once sheltered our ancestor Jakobus de Pechvogel, when he lived there as a castaway 500 years ago.